


Gasoline

by BlankLinedPaper



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe- No Heartless, Drama, M/M, Not so epic roadtrip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-07
Updated: 2014-06-07
Packaged: 2018-02-03 18:49:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1754525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlankLinedPaper/pseuds/BlankLinedPaper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which they're all stupid. Years after they parted ways, Axel and Roxas reunite over the disappearance of Sora. Which, of course, leads to drama and lighters and not quite as epic as expected road trips.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gasoline

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the song Gasoline by The Airborne Toxic Event.
> 
> Previously posted on Fanfiction.net in 2011.

It had started out like any normal conversation with his best friend Demyx. It would have stayed normal too, if Demyx had known when to keep his mouth shut like any normal person. But no, finishing the current conversation topic he had to launch into the next one with, "Hey, guess who I ran into the other day?"

And Axel had rolled his eyes and indulged him with a disinterested "Who?" because dammit he was a good friend like that even if the last conversation that started like this led to a 30 minute discussion on why Demyx really should have kept his old hairdresser. Like Axel gave a fuck.

"Roxas."

And Axel nearly choked on his own spit.

~~~

_"I'm bored." Roxas kicked his feet as they hung off the edge of the wooden platform on the western side of the small play island. It was their normal hang out place, the multiple ladders and steps making it so that not many people bothered them and they saw them coming if they did._

_Axel rolled his eyes and flicked his lighter on again. "That's because there's nothing to do in this goddamn hick town."_

_He glanced away from the flame for a moment and was rewarded with one of Roxas's smiles. "One day, we should burn it down."_

_Axel laughed, allowing the lighter to flick off and swinging his body back up into sitting position next to the blond. "Now who's the pyro?"_

_Roxas gave a frustrated sigh. "I'm serious Axel!"_

_Axel reflexively threw his hands up in a defensive pose. "Sorry, sorry." He turned back to stare down at the water below. "It won't burn easy, ya know?"_

_He felt Roxas shift a bit closer. "We just need something really flammable, like gasoline; we'll set the town on fire you and me."_

_'We already have.' Axel wanted to say. They were the talk of the town, the two of them. Ever since Roxas's father had walked in on them making out a few days ago. Had Roxas really not noticed? Had or hadn't, it wasn't something Axel really wanted to talk about. So instead he said, "Yeah, a shitload of gasoline."_

~~~

"You haven't really talked to him since you left, have you." It was said thoughtfully in a way that wasn't really a question and Demyx didn't even wait for an answer before hurrying on excitedly. "But anyways! So we're catching up, right? He asks about you and I tell him you're the same only maybe kinda even more of a pyro and then I ask what's new with him and ohmigod, Axel, you'll never guess! He's married!"

Axel stared at his friend blankly. Roxas and married did not belong in the same sentence. Unless that sentence was 'Roxas would never ever in a billion years get married.' "What?" Axel finally managed.

Demyx's head bobbed up and down at somewhere around 40 miles per hour. "I know, right?! Apparently he married Naminé, you know, the artist girl?"

Axel was, if possible, even more thrown. Roxas married Naminé? Roxas? His violent, moody, 'let's burn this town down' Roxas? Marry the town's resident 'good girl'? What. The. Fuck. Could he have changed that much in 4 years?

~~~

_Hi, err, Axel?"_

_The redhead was surprised to hear his boyfriend's brother's voice on the other end of the phone. "Sora?"_

_"Yeah. Hi. Um, do you think you come over, like, now? Roxas is..." He trailed off, as if not sure what to say._

_"I'll be right over."_

_Even thought Roxas's house was across town and Axel had to walk (he was seventeen dammit, why couldn't he have a car?!) he was there in 10 minutes. That's how small Destiny Islands was: very._

_Sora let him in and without a word he headed up the stairs to the blond’s room. He pushed the door open to find it empty. He turned questionably to Sora who pointed him towards his own room. Frowning he pushed open Sora's door._

_He found Roxas in the middle of the floor, Axel's favorite green lighter in his right hand setting aflame the yellow sweatshirt in his left._

_Roxas looked up but neither of them spoke until Sora's footsteps disappeared downstairs. "Riku broke up with Sora." The “again” was left off but understood.  
After watching the various not-so-great reactions to Roxas and Axel's relationship, Riku and Sora had decided to keep their’s a secret. This led to unseen complications and Riku breaking up with Sora at least once a month._

_Axel nodded and fell ungracefully to the floor across from the other, pulling one of several lighters out of his pocket (despite what the other thought he did notice when Roxas stole one and was always quick to replace it), picking up the other arm of the damp sweatshirt and holding it to the flame until it lit._

_And the two sat there for hours as they burned things, burned memories. They got angry in Sora's place because the brunette would never do it himself. For hours, item after item, in a room smelling heavily of gasoline._

~~~

"Hey, Axel, you okay?" Demyx had finally stopped talking and noticed that this wasn't Axel's 'I'm bored' quiet.

"What?" Axel glanced over to his friend and shook the thoughts from his head. "Yeah. Fine."

Demyx nodded. "Okay." And Axel knew he would be hearing nonstop about Roxas's perfect new life. He wasn't sure if this was better or worse than the hairdresser, nor was he sure if he should be relieved that it didn't even occur to Demyx to question if he really was okay.

As it was, Axel would later swear it was an hour before he convinced Demyx to end the Roxas Conversation (which deserved capitals just from the sheer horror of hearing about Roxas in a Tux and Roxas being married and Roxas having an apparently really normal boring life). His numerous previous attempts had failed due to (for once in their lives) their dishes and laundry being clean (Zexion had come over which always threw Demyx into Hyper-cleaning-oh-my-god-what-if-he-thinks-I'm-a-slob mode), the trash was out (Axel had been looking for any excuse to avoid hurricane Demyx), and the kitchen being fully stocked with food (brought by Zexion who was not fooled and Axel knew sometimes came over just to make them clean). This left Axel with no out until he was saved, quite literally, by the clock.

"Dem," he cut in, glancing at the purple clock above his roommate’s head, "Don't you have that show to get to?"

And Demyx had blinked, looked at the clock, and shot to his feet. "Shit! Zexy's actually going to mutilate me if I keep showing up late! Here." He thrust a small paper into Axel's hand. "Roxas wants you to call him." He called as he dashed out of the room, appearing again seconds later with sitar case in hand and half running out the door.

Waving his hand halfheartedly at the already closed door, Axel glanced down at the paper. Upon recognizing the area code for Destiny Islands, he found himself with the incredible urge to burn something.

~~~

_Axel was wearing a white tank top and baggy shorts. It was about a billion degrees out and therefore had been completely worth digging through all his luggage to find said items. He glanced at the CD in his hand for a moment before decisively chucking it into the open box on his bed. The next was carefully placed in a much smaller and neater pile next to it. Graduation had been almost two weeks ago and he was leaving in two days for Twilight Town with Roxas. His extensive CD collection was the last thing he had to pack and it was proving to take awhile as he debated which CDs to keep for the ride. Only the fact that Roxas had been packed for a week and bugging him to get his ass in gear kept him determinedly working through the heat._

_There was a slight creak from the hall and Axel turned with a grin, holding up the CD he’d been contemplating. “What do you think Roxy? Car or box?”_

_Roxas didn’t answer, his gaze shifting to the window. Axel frowned. “Roxas?”_

_The blonde sighed, eyes flittering to Axel before darting away again. “I’m not going to Twilight Town with you.”_

_Axel half laughed and half snorted in disbelief. “What?”_

_Roxas looked away and faltered a little. “I’m sorry,” he finally muttered, staring hard at the dresser with its open empty drawers. “I just… I can’t. I need to figure some things out for myself.”_

_“Great.” Axel ran his hands through his hair. “What the fuck does that even mean?”_

_“I’m going off by myself.” Roxas answered with more confidence, straightening up and turning back to Axel. “I just need to be alone to think for awhile.”_

_Axel frowned. “Where will you go?”_

_“I don’t know.”_

_“Well then how long will you be gone?”_

_“I don’t know.”_

_“Well dammit Roxas!” Axel exploded. “What the fuck do you know?”_

_Axel caught a brief glimpse of Roxas’s slightly hurt look before the shorter looked away. “Goodbye Axel.”_

_And then he was leaving and Axel was just standing there watching, half of him just expecting Roxas to turn around and come back._

_He didn’t._

_Roxas left, and Axel just stood and watched._

~~~

Axel stared at the phone in his left hand, his right flicking a lighter open and closed. The number was already dialed, all he had to do was press send. But all he did was stare, contemplating if he was well and truly drunk enough to do it. After another minute of turning his gaze from the phone to the flickering flame and back he decided that no, he wasn’t. But he pressed the button anyways.

“Hello?”

There was a beat of silence (Axel really hadn’t expected him to pick up that fast) before the customary grin spread across his face. “Hey blondie, how’s it going?”

He’d been expecting frustration, anger, some sort of complaint, but none came. No, instead he got, “Sora’s missing.”

The lighter fell out of Axel’s hand as he sat up straighter on the couch. “What do you mean by ‘missing’?”

“I mean gone,” Roxas snapped. “Not at home, not at Riku’s, not on that goddamn island.”

Axel paused a second to think before nodding. “Okay. Where else would he go?”

And Roxas couldn’t have changed that much because oh look there was the customary anger. “If I fucking knew I wouldn’t be asking you.” He heard the slow harsh breathing that meant Roxas was trying to calm himself down.

“Okay.” Axel tried again. “Have you talked to Riku?”

“Of course I fucking talked to the asshole. Absolutely no help and now he’s gone too.”  
Well, Axel mused, that sucked. “I don’t know what to tell ya kid. That brother of yours was always a little strange.”

“And so are you. Now help me find him.”

“Whoa whoa whoa.” The hand not holding the phone went up to flap by his face. “What makes you think I want to waste my time looking for Sora? Sunshine can take care of himself.”

Roxas hung up.

Axel groaned, throwing his phone across the room where it hit the back of a kitchen chair with a thud. Leave it to Roxas to walk out on him, ignore him for years and then ask for help taking care of his twin brother like they were seventeen again.

“No fucking way.” Axel muttered as he bent down to pick his lighter up off the floor.  
“There is no fucking way.” He flicked it open and stared at the small flame for a moment before lighting the edge of the paper with Roxas’s number on it. He watched as it crumpled in on itself and burned.

~~~

_“Axel I can’t find Sora.”_

_Axel laughed. ”He’s probably off somewhere with Riku.”_

_Roxas frowned. “Maybe.”_

_Axel sighed. “Find. I get it. You’re an overprotective bitch. Is his boat still here?”_

_Roxas rolled his eyes, well used to Axel’s behavior, before heading towards the dock with Axel trailing behind. “Yeah.” He said when his eyes landing on the boat with SORA in large curvy letter painted by a younger Riku. “But,” he turned to the other side and nodded. “Riku’s is gone.”_

_“Well there you go.” Axel laughed. “They went to that island again.”_

_Roxas didn’t stop frowning. “You sure? He’s never gone without telling me before.”  
Axel rolled his eyes. “Okay okay.” He walked to the edge of the dock and untied his painted flame boat. “Let’s go find him.”_

_And the smile he got in response was worth the trouble._

_It took them almost an hour and Roxas’s persistence to find Riku and Sora hiding in a small hidden cave by the waterfall._

_“The secret place.” Sora told them in a conspiratorial whisper. “Riku found it. Don’t tell anyone, okay?” Who would have thought that it’d be Riku and Sora keeping all the secrets._

~~~

Axel was not someone who could be mistaken as a selfless person. If he wanted something he got it no matter how it affected anyone else. He never did anything that didn’t someone benefit him. So it wasn’t for either of the twins that Roxas was in his living room sitting moodily in the armchair Demyx had vacated earlier with a map spread out across the coffee table. It really wasn’t. And if Roxas thought otherwise, well then… Roxas was an idiot and that was his problem. Because Axel honestly didn’t care.

“Well,” Axel finally started when it became obvious Roxas was perfectly happy to just sit there and stare at him. “Where all has Sora ever gone? As far as I know he’s never left the Islands.”

“He hasn’t.” Roxas muttered in his surly tone that clearly stated that everything down to the air was pissing him off. “He and Riku always talked about it but never went.”

“Well there you go.” Axel concluded. “I’m sure lover boy’s smart enough to search the places Sora always wanted to go. We… are assuming he ran away, right?”

“Yes.” Roxas gritted out.

Which was admittedly probably not Axel’s cue to jump in with a “Whoa! Calm down Blondie!” But, then, Axel had never been great at knowing when to stop trying to piss people off.

Roxas, to his credit, looked like he was honestly trying very hard not to murder the redhead. “You know what,” Roxas stood up, stomping over to the table and folding up the map. “Fuck you. Excuse me for thinking that just because Sora looked up to you so damn much that you might even pretend to care in the slightest about him.”

There had only been somewhere around three times in his life where Axel realized that he really did need to be serious. Most of the time, like today, he realized that fact a little late, but wasn’t everyone always saying it was the thought that counted?

“Hey.” He stood up and slowly walked over to the tense form of Roxas who was basically crumpling the map into smaller and smaller squares (he thought he should get bonus points for allowing the mutilation and not pointing out it folded nicely into rectangles). “I’m sorry.” He hesitantly reached out to touch Roxas’s shoulder and it was at that moment he realized Roxas was crying. “Fuck. Roxas I… You’re really worried about him, aren’t you.”

Only Roxas could glare that much through tears. “No shit Axel. You think I came all the way here for the fun of it? I was kinda hoping he was staying with you.”

“No. I don’t even think Sunshine knows my address.”

Roxas gave him a funny look. “He sends you a card every holiday.” And once Roxas said it Axel remembered that yes, he did have a large stack of cards and letters from his ex’s twin.

“Right. Okay. He knows my address, but I haven’t seen him.” Roxas nodded and Axel realized he really couldn’t stand all this sullen seriousness. “Come on.” He yanked on Roxas’s hand, picking up his keys on the way out the door. “We’ll go look around town some more while you tell me what’s going on.”

Axel takes him to the clock tower. He gives some bullshit excuse about being able to see half the town from up top, but really he just wants to hang his feet off the edge into the blue blue sky, eat ice cream, and pretend the world exists only of Roxas and him on a wooden platform talking about burning the town with fire in their hearts and not a care in the world.

Roxas protested at first (especially when he saw all the red tape and the Do Not Enter sign) but eventually gave in and they compromised by searching through every nook and cranny on the way.

~~~

_“Oh my god Roxas!” Roxas smiled a bit at the grinning mass of Sora that had just launched itself into his arms._

_“Hey Sor.”_

_“You were gone for months I was so worried!”_

_Roxas grimaced and pulled his brother off him. “Sorry.”_

_Sora shrugged. “It’s okay I guess. Oh! You have to see what Riku got me!” He grabbed his twin’s hand, dragging him up the stairs to the bedrooms._

_Roxas stopped outside of his own room, the black jacket lying on his bed catching his eye. “Hey, Sora?”_

_His hand was dropped as Sora turned to him. “Hmm?”_

_“Have you… seen Axel lately?” He’d been wanting to ask the second he’d walked through the door. Uncertainty keeping him from going to Axel’s house until he knew more._

_“Not since he moved out.”_

_Roxas bit his lip. “Axel left?”_

_“Well… yeah.” Sora spoke softly and slowly like he was expecting Roxas to freak out. “I mean, it’s Axel. You didn’t really expect him to wait, did you?” No response. “It’s just not what he does. When you didn’t come back”, because that sounded better than the truth which was ‘pretty much as soon as you left’, “he took off to Twilight Town with Demyx.”_

_Roxas nodded slowly, trying hard to remind himself that it was a very Axel thing to do. Axel waited for no one. Why would he wait for him? “With Demyx?” It shouldn’t have surprised him that much. After Roxas, Demyx was Axel’s best friend._

_“Yeah…”_

_Still, he couldn’t deny it kind of hurt._

~~~

They’re on their way back to Axel’s apartment when Roxas stops, staring at the large grate. “What’s that?”

Axel shrugged, fingering the lighter in his pocket. “Tunnel entrance. There are huge tunnels that go all under the city.”

Roxas raises an eyebrow and turns to give Axel a look that clearly says ‘and you only thought to mention this now?’

Axel groaned. “He wouldn’t go down there, Roxie, trust me. Dem and I explored it once; it’s creepy as fuck down there.” But Roxas was giving him that stupid (sexy) stubborn expression that meant he’d picked his fight and wasn’t going to back down. Axel admired it when it was aimed at someone else, but somehow failed to see the appeal when it was turned on him.

Axel sighed and gave in. “Fine. We’ll go in the fucking creepy tunnels.” Sometimes with Roxas you didn’t really have a choice.

He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and flipped it open to use as a flashlight. Roxas pulled out his own phone next to him. “A flip phone, seriously?” He snorted, stepping around Axel to enter the tunnel and shine his phone into corners.

Axel rolled his eyes, following Roxas and halfheartedly searching in corners. “It works fine. Plus, it matches the dinosaur I ride to work.” He was well used to snide comments about his phone which he saw no reason to replace as long as it could still make the occasional phone call.

“Whatever.”

They fell silent as they moved deeper into the tunnel system, Axel occasionally pushing Roxas the right direction. “So…” He finally tried when the silence became too much. “How have you been?”

“Seriously?” Roxas’s snort echoed through the empty space. “My brother is missing. I don’t much feel like small talk.”

Axel, not for the first time, felt like punching the blond. Did he always have to be such a little prick? “Fine, then let’s talk about something serious. Why didn’t you invite me to your wedding?”

Roxas snorted. “Don’t play stupid Axel, you know why.”

“Humor me.”

Roxas gave him a look before turning back to face forward. “You wouldn’t even have wanted to go.”

“You can’t know that. Come on, Rox.”

“Fine.” With a huff Roxas turned around to face him. His phone light dimmed and turned off until only Axel’s was left illuminating Roxas’s face. “I didn’t want you there.”

Axel laughed. “Why ever not?”

He could see Roxas’s eyes roll in the dim light. “You can’t pretend you’d just sit there and not comment.” His phone light flicked back on, briefly blinding Axel before Roxas turned and walked through the next grate as if to say conversation over.

But since when did Axel ever listen? “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Come on!” The light from Roxas’s phone waved erratically. “You’d show up and start talking and suddenly I’d find myself not wanting to be married.”

Axel grinned at Roxas’s tense back. “I should have. Just shown up in my car and asked you to hop in and run away with me.”

Roxas laughed. “Right.”

Axel let it be taken as a joke, even if the quivering light that betrayed Roxas’s shaking hands meant they both knew he was serious.

~~~

_The table was a mess, full of invitations and envelopes and those goddamn lists Naminé was so fond of but made Roxas’s hands itch for a lighter. One such list was directly in front of Naminé, pen poised inches from the paper as she studied the names._

_“Do you…” Naminé’s voice was cautious. “Do you want to invite Axel? He… he was your best friend so I’d understand if-“_

_“No.” Roxas cut her off, feeling slightly bad for the harsh tone in his voice._

_“Okay.” Naminé muttered quietly, moving on quickly. “How about the Strifes? They’ve lived next door your entire life, right?”_

_Roxas was grateful she hadn’t pursued it further. “I don’t know. Their son was a lot older than us, so it’s not like we really knew them.”_

_Naminé nodded. “I’ll mark them as maybe and then we’ll see how many people we end up with.”_

_‘Just scratch off everyone on my list but Sora.’ Roxas wanted to say. ‘Fuck this, Sora’s the only one I want there.’ But he knew it was 50-50 if Sora would even show up, and he couldn’t hurt Naminé like that. Not calm, sweet, quiet Naminé. He reached for the lighter in his pocket before remembering he no longer carried one._

~~~

“Sora.”

The brown haired man looked up at the sound of his name, not that surprised to see Riku standing there. “Hey.” He whispered, not sure what else to say. Riku didn’t respond and Sora turned back to watching the waterfalls of the fountain court from his place standing in the shallow pool. He heard footsteps and then the splashing of water as Riku walked closer and he shifted away. He glanced out of the corner of his eye to where Riku had come to a stop next to him, glancing away before Riku could meet his eyes.

“It’s pretty, isn’t it?” His hands gestured emptily to the town around him.

Riku nodded slowly. “Yeah.” It was silent for a moment before Riku sighed, slowly reaching out to grab Sora’s hand. “Sora,” he whispered, “I-“

Sora crossed his arms, still refusing to look at him. Riku dropped silent.

“We weren’t going anywhere.” Sora finally muttered, turning to Riku. “We weren’t ever going to go anywhere.”

Riku winced at the double meaning, wishing he could believe Sora was only referring to them never leaving the islands. “No,” he quietly agreed, “we weren’t.”

~~~

_“Radiant Garden.”_

_Sora looked down at him from his place atop the bent Paupu tree. “What?”_

_Riku grinned, pulling himself up to sit next to his boyfriend. “That’s where I want to go first. Radiant Garden. It’s supposed to be a great town, and I think you’d really love the fountain court.”_

_“Yeah?” Sora grinned. “Okay. We’ll go there first. And then Christmas town! I want to meet Santa!”_

_Riku laughed loudly. “Of course you do.”_

_“And Atlantica! I wanna see a mermaid!”_

_“We’ll go everywhere.”_

_“Yeah.” Sora turned to Riku with a grin. “Sora and Riku, world class explorers!”_

~~~

“Alright. So I think we’ve determined that Sora isn’t here. Any idea where else he’d go?”

Roxas sighed. “I don’t know. I think he said something once about meeting Santa?”

“Okay. Let’s head that way then. I’ll drive.”

Roxas snorted. “You’re a horrible driver, I’ll-“ His phone rang. He stopped to stare at it. “It’s Sora.”

“Oh.” And Axel was almost disappointed. No epic road trip with Roxas then.

Roxas practically broke the answer button stabbing it. “Hello?”

“Hey Roxas.” Sora’s voice was soft. “Sorry about the whole running away thing. Riku… Riku and I are in Radiant Garden, if you could maybe come pick us up?”

Roxas had taken a plane to Twilight Town. He looked at Axel out of the corner of his eye. “Sure. Twilight Town is like… four hours away, so we’ll be there around 11, okay? Why don’t you find a hotel or something if you haven’t already.”

“Okay. Yeah. We’ll do that.”

“And Sora? Just…” He trailed off. Telling Sora to stay away from Riku would probably do nothing but put more stress to their strained relationship. “I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he finally finished.

~~~

_“What the fuck are we even listening to?”_

_Axel sighed. “It’s Say Anything Dem. I know you’ve heard them. Roxas plays ‘Alive With The Glory of Love’ at least 5 times a day.”_

_Demyx turned to rest his head against the window. “Right.” It was silent for a moment before he finally asked, “You ever going to tell me what happened with you two? Last I checked this was supposed to be ‘Axel and Roxas’s epic road trip to our future life’.”_

_Axel was silent for a moment, staring off into space and only paying enough attention to slam on the breaks and barely avoid hitting the car going slower in front of him. “I told you, Roxas decided not to go.”_

_“Right,” Demyx muttered, breath fogging up the window. “But you never said why.”_

_Axel’s grip tightened on the wheel. “I really don’t know Dem.”_

_Demyx glanced at him for a second before looking back out the window again. “Oh.”_

_‘Yeah,’ Axel thought bitterly, ‘Oh.’_

~~~

“Hey Sora? Can we talk?”

Sora was half tempted to make some snarky comment about how they were talking but he knew that wasn’t what Riku meant. Ever since the conversation at the fountain they hadn’t actually talked about anything real or important.

He sighed. “There really isn’t much to talk about. You broke up with me for about the sixtieth time. I’m done. This is just- We’re just-“ He looked down. “I’m just done with you.”

“Sora.”

“You broke up with me because I asked if I could tell my parents! My parents who already knew! I just wanted one group of people I didn’t have to pretend around. I’m just sick of you being so damn ashamed of me!”

“I’m not ashamed of you!”

“Right. Of course. That’s why you refused to tell anyone we were dating.”  
Riku sighed. “Look, it’s just that after Axel and Roxas… well no one really responded that well.”

Sora groaned. “So what?! Since when do you care so damn much what everyone thinks?”

“I don’t!” Sora flinched at the loud and aggravated tone. “Fuck.” Riku ran a hand through his hair, willing himself to calm down. “I don’t.” He finally said, voice quiet though still sounding more ticked off then he would have liked. “Not really. But you do.”

“Not as much as I care about you.” Sora whispered, staring resolutely at the floor.

That made Riku pause. “Sora I-“ He cut himself off and just stared at Sora for a moment before asking, “Could we just start over? You and me. I’ll take you out and we’ll hold hands and screw the consequences.”

Sora laughed. “You don’t mean that.” But there was a fond smile on his face.

“I really do.”

“Okay,” Sora relented, “Maybe you mean that here, in the middle of Radiant Garden. But you won’t mean it when we get home.”

Riku snorted and responded like he would to any other challenge. “You just watch me.”

~~~

_Roxas wasn’t blind. Therefore he’d noticed the tension surrounding Riku and Sora the last few days. So really when Sora came back from the beach without Riku who was supposed to be sleeping over with the twins for ‘old times sake’ (because Sora was secretly a sentimental old man child), he really wasn’t that surprised._

_“You guys break up again?” He felt a bit bad when Sora flinched but he was getting more than a little fed up with his brother’s stupidity. For just how long was he expected to just keep quiet and pick up the pieces? He watched as Sora walked over to lie on the couch and bury his head in the cushions._

_“You don’t have to stay if you don’t want. I doubt I’ll be much fun.”_

_Roxas sighed, sitting on the edge of the couch by his brother. “Look, Sora, this whole angsting over Riku thing is stupid. This is like the hundredth time he’s broken up with you, it’s stupid to keep trying!”_

_“I know.” Sora muttered into the cushions. And then, “I don’t really want to talk about it Roxas.”_

_Roxas sighed. “I’m your brother, I just worry about you. Just… stop doing this to yourself. Date Kairi or Selphie or just someone else!”_

S _ora pushed his face further into the cushions. “I’m not talking about this Roxas.”_

_“Fine.” Roxas huffed, walking over to put his shoes on and head back home. “Fine.”_

~~~

“You’re both in room 214?! As in sharing a room?!” Axel couldn’t hear Sora’s response but Roxas scowled. “Fine. Whatever.” He hung up and glared angrily at the road and Axel sighed from his place in the passenger seat of his car.

“Roxas. Sora is fine. He can take care of himself.”

Roxas gritted his teeth, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. “Shut up Axel.”

Axel sighed and ignored him. “Seriously, Rox, I know you have an issue with Riku but it’s all really up to Sora. You need to stop micromanaging his life.”

“This really isn’t any of your business.”

Axel snorted. “Right, of course. Because it wasn’t me you came to for help. God forbid I have any part in your life.”

“You know what?!” Roxas shouted. “Fine!” He pulled over and got out of the car, the slamming of the door making the entire vehicle shake.

Axel got out after him. “Fuck Roxas! Careful with my fucking car!”

When Roxas just crossed his arms Axel huffed. “Fine. Fine. I’m going home.” He climbed into the driver’s seat and turned back towards home. And if he slammed the door just as hard as Roxas had, well, then who could really blame him?

He’d got as far as the next hill, cursing Roxas and his bad temper the entire way. He glanced back far more often then he liked, and when Roxas’s slight form disappeared behind the hill he found himself turning around. “Fucking hell, Axel, what are you doing?” He asked himself as he approached the irate blond.

Roxas jumped out of the way as Axel pulled over, nearly hitting him in the process. Axel could hear his loud “Fuck!” as he landed in the weeds surrounding the road.

Opening the door he went over to help Roxas up. Roxas ignored the hand, scowling up at him. “Fucking hell Axel you bitch, you nearly hit me!”

Axel ignored him. “Get in the car.”

“Hell no.”

“Get. In. The. Fucking. Car.”

Roxas’s fists clenched. “I don’t want to go anywhere with you. You nearly ran me over!”  
Axel sighed. “Not on purpose.”

“No, Axel, no. You don’t get to nearly run people over and then call it an accident.”

Axel frowned. “Come on Roxas, you don’t actually think I was trying to hit you.”

Roxas turned around, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

“Roxas.” He reached out to grab the blonde’s shoulder, but Roxas just wrenched himself out of Axel’s grip and walked a few paces away.

“Hey,” Roxas said after a minute. “Naminé? Could you do me a huge favor? I’m kinda… stuck.” A pause. “By that I mean I was using an asshole’s car and now I’m standing on the side of the road after he tried to make me into road kill. Sora’s in Radiant Garden with Riku.” Another pause. “Yes, the asshole is Axel but I hardly see what the has to do with- No I don’t think you understand I am not getting back in the car with him.”

Axel rolled his eyes, walking up behind Roxas and opting this time to wrestle the phone from his tight grip. “Hey,” he said, turning to avoid Roxas’s grabbing, “Axel here. What do I have to do to get your husband back in my car?”

Naminé laughed. “Do you have any candy?”

Axel considered this for a moment. “I may have a few stale Twizzlers in my trunk. Personally I think they’re good stale, but Roxas is a prissy little bitch and I’m not sure he’d go for that.”

“No candy then.” Naminé said with a laugh. Axel begrudgingly admitted that her laugh was prettier than his. Not that he wanted a tinkly laugh that sounded like bells, but Roxas probably liked things like that. “But seriously Axel,” By now Roxas had given up (Axel was too tall dammit!) and was leaning sullenly against the passenger side door. “you’d probably know better than me.”

Axel snorted. “Right. Because it’s not like he’s contrary on purpose or anything.” Here he glared at the blond who just glared right back.

Another laugh. “But really Axel, he loves you, he really does. He was so upset when you weren’t there when he got home.”

Axel grit his teeth. “Right. No. You’re totally right. It’s not like he left me. And it’s not like he’s fucking married or anything. No, sure, obviously he cared about me a great deal.”

“Oh come off it Axel!” Roxas stomped over. “We were fucked up and you know it. I don’t even know if we were dating. And what kind of future was a rundown flat in Twilight Town?”

“Well it’s not like you stuck around to find out!” Axel shouted.

“Boys!” Naminé shouted, and from Roxas’s flinch even he could hear her shrill voice.  
Axel muttered something that might have been an apology, if he were anyone else.

“Didn’t Roxas tell you?” Naminé asked after they all quieted down. “You knew about the wedding so I just assumed he told you everything, but if he didn’t, and I don’t know why he’d-“

“Naminé,” Axel cut her off. “What the fuck are you going on about?”

“Well, I mean.” A pause. “I’m gay Axel, and so is Roxas, we mostly just got married to get my old fashioned parents off my back. I mean, we dated for awhile while we were both in denial, but it was never anything serious.”

Axel stopped. Turned around to stare at Roxas. Took a step forward. Stopped again. “Roxas,” he asked slowly, “what’s this about your wife being a lesbian?”

“Fuck.” Roxas swore, darting forward to snatch the phone from Axel’s hand. “Naminé what the fuck are you telling him?”

They argued for a few more minutes in low tones Axel couldn’t hear. Finally Roxas snapped the phone shut and sighed. “Get in the car Axel, let’s go pick up Sora.”

Axel barely waited until they were driving again before starting the interrogation. “So you and Naminé aren’t really together together.”

Roxas sighed. “No.”

“And you were in love with me.”

Roxas’s grip tightened on the steering wheel. “Do we really have to talk about this Axel?”  
Axel grinned. “I’ll file that under a ‘yes’. And do you love me now?”

The car swerved to the left momentarily before Roxas got it back under control. “Axel.” He warned.

Axel studied him for a moment before his grin got even wider. “I’ll file that under a ‘yes’ too.”

Roxas rolled his eyes. “You do that.” Axel grinned, because that definitely wasn’t a no.

~~~

_“But… you hate it here.” Sora was confused. As in totally ‘which came first the chicken or the egg’ head hurting confusion. Because here, a mere three months after he’d left, was Roxas insisting that he was staying on Destiny Islands. And going to college. And dating Naminé. And Sora wasn’t sure if he should be happy or worried because this wasn’t normal Roxas behavior._

_“I just didn’t appreciate it then.” Roxas insisted. “But this is my home, and I’m not just going to take off for no reason.”_

_“You mean take off for no reason again.” Sora interjected somewhat bitterly. “You’ve already done it once. And, you know, I’m sure Axel would be happy if you moved to Twilight Town. Dem found a band, did you know?” His anger was fading away fast in typical happy Sora manner. “They’re actually doing pretty well. And Dem apparently has the hots for the manager even though Axel says he can be a total prick but-“_

_“Sora.” Roxas interrupted, not looking amused. “Go annoy Riku or something if you feel the need to talk.”_

_Sora frowned. “But we were talking about your problems.”_

_“You’re the one with problems Sora,” Roxas said. “Honestly.”_

_Sora grinned at him. “But you love me anyways!” He drew the words out into a song and Roxas rolled his eyes._

_“For some damn reason.”_

~~~

“What first attracted you to me?” Sora asked, starting up at the ceiling with Riku’s hand curled in his.

Riku gave him a funny look. “Are you seriously asking me that? You’re more of a girl than I thought.”

Sora glared at him. “But seriously.”

Riku sighed. “I don’t know Sora. Everything? Am I allowed to say everything?”

Sora laughed. “Sure, you can say everything. I think it was whenever you smiled. What first attracted me I mean. You have a nice smile.”

Riku rolled his eyes but smiled over at the brunette. “Thanks I guess.”

They laid in silence for a while longer.

“Your brother hates me you know.” Riku said. “Doesn’t that bother you?”

Sora shrugged, watching a spider crawl across the while ceiling. “A little. But he hates a lot of things so I’ve learned to ignore it.”

“Mmm. He does, doesn’t he?”

There was a knock at the door. “It’s open!” Sora cried.

A frown was firmly planted on Roxas’s face when he walked through the door. “’It’s open’? Really Sora? What if I was a serial killer or something?”

It was Riku who answered. “Well, you’re not.” He sat up on the bed and pulled his hand away from Sora’s. “So what’s-“

He was interrupted by Sora’s shriek as Axel walked in the door. “Axel! Oh my god, Riku, it’s Axel!” He launched himself off the bed to wrap himself around Axel in a hug. “Hey Axel!”

Axel grinned down at him, ruffling his hair awkwardly like he was twelve. “Heyah, Sunshine.” He nodded in acknowledgement towards Riku. “Riku.”

Riku nodded back. “Axel. We weren’t expecting you.”

“Aww, Blondie didn’t tell you we were road tripping together?” Axel pressed both hands to his heart. “I’m offended Roxie!”

Roxas sighed. “It’s not a big deal or anything.”

“So, so,” Sora fell back to sit on the bed, “are you guys together now? Is Roxas getting divorced? Did you have an epic reunion where you burned things and listened to loud music and pissed off everyone around you?”

Roxas rolled his eyes. “Shut up, Sora.”

Sora visibly deflated. “Oh. So you didn’t then.”

“Actually,” Axel threw his arm around Roxas’s shoulder. “I found out his wife is gay and that he’s in love with me, so I’d say we’re getting to flammable objects pretty soon now.”  
Roxas grit his teeth. “If you don’t move your arm pretty soon your hair will be the flammable object.”

“But Roxas!” Sora whined, “his hair is pretty!”

Riku looked smug, “Oh, please, it looks like it’s on fire already.” 

Roxas frowned over at him, “I think it looks nice.” He stopped when he realized what he said and the tips of his ears turned red. “Er, I mean, well.”

Axel slung his arm around Roxas’s shoulders. “It’s okay Roxie-baby.” He leaned in and kissed Roxas on the cheek. “We all know you think I’m sexy.”

Roxas sighed as he stole a lighter from Axel’s pocket. He grabbed Axel’s collar and used it to pull the taller boy closer, nearly bending Axel in half. Using his other hand he flicked the lighter on and waved it dangerously close to Axel’s face. “What was that?” 

Axel just grinned. “Right. Well.” Before Roxas could blink the lighter was out of his hands and being dropped into Axel’s pocket. “Could you let me go, love? This is starting to hurt.”

Roxas frowned but did as the red-head asked.

“Alrighty then.” Axel stretched his arms up to the ceiling and groaned. “Shall we get going then? We can sing road-trip songs and everything.”

Sora cheered, Riku glared, Roxas kicked him in the shin.


End file.
